No holiday break for Wildcats: Oak Ridge travels to Tri-Cities for ‘tough’ pair of tournaments

A week off gives the Oak Ridge Wildcats a chance to get “back to the basics” according to coach Aaron Green.

Comment

By Robert Holder

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Robert Holder

Posted Dec. 19, 2012 at 7:00 AM

By Robert Holder

Posted Dec. 19, 2012 at 7:00 AM

OAK RIDGE

A week off gives the Oak Ridge Wildcats a chance to get “back to the basics” according to coach Aaron Green.

And it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Coming off their first lost of the season, the basketball Wildcats (8-1) will make their first of two trips to the Tri-Cities on Friday for the Science Hill Classic to face Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett.

“We want to play the best we can,” coach Green said. “We will be challenged. I don’t think we will have a tougher two weeks than these two right here.”

The ‘Cats will face the Indians and Science Hill on back-to-back nights in the Trojans new basketball arena in Johnson City. The games are part of a “grand opening” that will feature games starting at 5 p.m. Friday and 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Oak Ridge will play DBHS at 6:30 p.m. Friday and SHHS at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Other teams in the Classic include Murfreesboro Seigel, Cleveland and Gate City, Va.

The Classic is part of a three-year commitment to games by Cleveland and the two Tri-Cities schools. Oak Ridge will travel to Cleveland next year and will host the other three at Wildcat Arena during the 2014-15 season.

The team will get a break for Christmas then make the trip back up Interstate 81 to Tennessee High School for the Arby’s Classic. The 18-team tournament has been one of the premier boys basketball tournaments in the Southeast for the last 30 years and will feature teams from Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Ohio, Canada, the Bahamas and Germany.

Green, who was named to the 1994 All-Arby’s Classic team when he played for Sweetwater High School, said the tournament will give his team the chance to play in a “state tournament atmosphere” and gain some exposure from college coaches all over the country.

“When I was in it, the finals were on one of the ESPNs,” Green said.

Oak Ridge will face Virginia Episcopal on Wednesday, Dec. 26, in the opening round and either Science Hill or Memphis Melrose in the second round on Friday, Dec. 28.

Virginia Episcopal was runner-up in Virginia’s Division II tournament last year. Melrose is currently ranked No. 3 in Memphis by the Memphis Commercial Appeal and features Memphis Tigers commit Markel Crawford.

Other teams include Christ School from Arden, N.C., the 2011 Arby’s Classic winners, Mentor High School of Mentor, Ohio — last year’s runner-up, and Urspring of Ulm, Germany.

Urspring’s Malik Muller is being looked at by Oregon State and Virigia Tech. Malik Kuwomu, a 7-foot sophomore center for Princeton Day Academy of Laurel, Md., is being sought after by Oklahoma, Maryland and Temple. They play host Tennessee High at 4 p.m. on Dec. 26.

Page 2 of 2 - Martin Luther King High School from Lithonia, Ga., — a suburb of Atlanta — will bring with them a pair of players on the Tennessee Volunteers radar, Donta Ottley, a 6-8 forward, and Greg King, a 6-7 junior.

Both are averaging double digit points and rebounds.

MLKHS will face Dobyns-Bennett Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Games will begin at 1 p.m. on Dec. 26 and 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, and be played at Bristol’s Viking Hall adjacent to Tennessee High School.